Parties and group events may have been canceled for now to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but that hasn\u2019t stopped friends and family from celebrating. As strange as the last month has been, people across the country have found ways to make sure their loved ones still feel loved and that things worth celebrating don\u2019t get overlooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite not being at Harding with her friends, senior Macey Vaught celebrated her 21st birthday with her family after two years of celebrating the day at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Vaught was growing up, she said her mom decorated her room while she was still sleeping on the morning of her birthday, then her family would wake her up in the morning with singing and eat cake for breakfast. It was a treat to get to experience it again after several years without, Vaught said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so fun, and it has been one of my favorite family traditions that we do for everybody\u2019s birthday,\u201d Vaught said. \u201cI am very thankful to have grown up in a family that makes birthdays a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vaught also said she got to FaceTime her suitemates later that evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love living with those girls so much,\u201d Vaught said. \u201cIt was very special that we all got to FaceTime and celebrate even though we aren\u2019t together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This birthday ended up being one of Vaught\u2019s most memorable and among her top three favorites, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The celebrations don\u2019t stop with birthdays. Juniors Laurel Beshirs and Lindlee Moon celebrated the upcoming marriage of their friend, senior Abbey Lusk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beshirs and Moon started planning a wedding shower for their friend in February, but when life took an unexpected turn, they had to make a new plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beshirs said she was disappointed about their original plan getting flopped, but she and Moon developed a new plan to host a virtual wedding shower through Zoom. Beshirs sent out a group message to friends and told them to send a wedding gift to her house, which she then delivered to Lusk\u2019s home as a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt kind of felt like we were all there, even though we weren\u2019t,\u201d Beshirs said. \u201cI feel very blessed to have the technology to be able to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shower was put together so smoothly that Beshirs said she knew God was working through it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI could see the Lord working through everyone\u2019s willingness to do it, and everyone was so excited,\u201d Beshirs said. \u201cYou could see the love that we all have for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior Caroline Nesbitt found ways to celebrate her sister-in-law\u2019s 16th birthday, even though she couldn\u2019t throw the big party that many would expect to come with a momentous birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nesbitt said her older sister-in-law covered their refrigerator in pictures of the birthday girl to start out the day, and the whole family was able to gather for a birthday lunch of potato soup, Dora Express for dinner and strawberry cheesecake for dessert. Luckily, the Department of Motor Vehicles was still open, so she was able to do what every 16-year-old wants to do \u2014 get her driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was low-key, but honestly probably not super far off from what we would have done anyway,\u201d Nesbitt said. \u201cIt\u2019s been really neat to spend one-on-one time with [my husband\u2019s] family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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